Even before they’d formally unveiled Need for Speed Heat, EA had been talking about how they wanted to revitalize the “street racer vs cops” fantasy with the next game in the series. Recently, we saw the game’s gameplay debut, and it definitely seems like that is indeed going to be a major focus in the racer.
And as per new details given by the developers in an interview with Twinfinite, there are many ways that Need for Speed Heat is going to expand upon the cop chases that we saw in Need for Speed Payback in 2017. For once, the police will always be a threat even in the open world, and players will have to use many tactics to get rid of any cops on their tail. This can include driving aggressively and making them crash, by escaping them, or by looking for places to hide in the game’s open world.
Cops also drive different kinds of vehicles, with low-tier police driving around in Dodge Chargers, while high-tier cops driving Corvettes. Any heat (your wanted level, basically) that you accumulate will not simply go away if you do manage to escape the cops one way or another, interestingly enough, and if they see you again, they will resume pursuing you, until you go back to a safe house and lie low for a bit. However, the greater heat you have on you, the more rewards you will get, with heat acting as a multiplier of sorts. If, however, you get busted or crash your car, you lose that multiplier.
It sounds great on paper, but I guess it all depends on how well they pull it off in terms of actual gameplay. We’ll find out not long from now- Need for Speed Heat is out on November 8 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.